Posts

Consent

Don’t Consent to This!

I’m here with a quick message today from my friend, Eleanor Roosevelt –

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”

I love this statement and have referred to it many times over the years.

Consent

(And isn’t it cool that our shoe color matches?)


The definition of consent is: permission, approval, or agreement.

We can’t control what anyone else says or does, but we can always choose how we’ll respond. We can let it roll off our back, or give those words and actions permission/approval to settle in.

The emotions we choose to “feel” about another’s comments are created within us because of our own thoughts about what they said.

I know that can sometimes seem like a hard concept, but it’s really so empowering to realize that it’s our own inner thoughts that create our emotions, because words spoken by someone outside of us (an external circumstance) can’t do that.

Keeping our inner thoughts positive lessens the chance of us “consenting” to feel inferior over someone else’s words or actions.

Here are 10 tools to positively fortify your thoughts:

*Limit time with negative people

*Set and keep healthy boundaries

*Always assume good intent

*Do more of what lights you up

*Create a list of personal affirmations -and declare them daily

*Keep a gratitude journal

*Live in alignment with your values

*Keep your word to yourself and to others

*Create good self-care habits

*Practice Self-Compassion

In today’s world we may not always find compassion, tenderness, and empathy, but we can be willing to give it to ourselves.

Pick one thing from this list that you can do more of this coming week.


Much love,

Carolyn Cooper
monsters - halloween

Monsters Under Your Bed!

As I was at the grocery store last week, I walked around a corner and GASP! These “dolls” took me by surprise! It brought back a memory from when I was 8 years old and my two sisters and I were having a sleep over with our two girl cousins.

halloween

We were in their basement bedroom, where the sliding closet doors were open revealing 2 dolls standing up, leaned against the back of the closet, eyes glaring at us.

These dolls were pretty, with sweet faces and beautiful dresses, but the way their big blue eyes seemed to look right at me gave me the creeps. In fact, in my mind they looked more like the Halloween dolls in this photo!

As fate would have it, I was the one whose sleeping bag was closest to the closet. I begged my sisters and cousins to trade places with me (after all, I was the youngest) but, unfortunately, I had already pointed out to them how scary the dolls looked. So my sisters said, “No way!” and my cousins loved their dolls, and thought I was just being silly.

That was a rough night for me. I didn’t get much sleep, because I was afraid to close my eyes for fear of what these monster-dolls might do! Once I got it in my head that they seemed a little too creepily life-like (yes, creepily is a real word), I could think of nothing else.

Although seeing the dolls last week in the grocery store brought back the memory, I didn’t experience any fearful emotion connected with it. I was surprised to see them, but there is no longer any residue of fear in my physical or energetic body.

That’s the power of SimplyAlign. It releases the emotional potency of past (and current) situations. The emotions from that experience got cleared from me years ago, so now I have the memory, but without any fearful emotions attached.

There are two lessons from this story:

1) You are in control of what thoughts you let in your mind

We often see a situation and in our mind we make it bigger and scarier than it actually is. Let the scary, negative thought pass (remember, not every thought that floats through your brain is truth) and bring up a positive and more empowering thought about this situation. In my case I could’ve had a restful night had I just told myself:

“Those dolls are not real and can’t hurt me.”

*What are the “dolls” in your life that you are imagining to be bigger and scarier than they really are?

Knock them back down to size by looking at them realistically (even spiritually to find the lesson) and give yourself some go-to positive affirmations to say to yourself instead.

2) It’s time to get rid of the monsters under your bed

You don’t need to carry your past monsters with you. You can release any past or present monsters whether they just rear their ugly heads occasionally, or consistently lurk near you. Those monsters may come as fear, regrets, anger, grief, betrayal, etc. We can learn from all of these, but once you’ve experienced it, you don’t need to carry that any longer.

SimplyAlign is the best tool I know for dissolving those ‘emotional monsters’.

If you’re ready, here’s how I can help:

I have some openings for private sessions

I’ve also trained these amazing Certified SA Practitioners

If you want to get trained in the SimplyAlign Method and become one of our awesome practitioners, click here to get on the Waitlist so you’ll receive info on the upcoming SimplyAlign cerTrac Training Course.

If you’ve ever attended one of my 4-day Trainings in the past, and haven’t registered for next week’s online Refresher Course do it now! We’d love to have you there, and our world needs your help. Registration Closes on Monday, November 1st!

 

 

Brain Dump - Brain Calming Technique

My favorite Brain Calming Technique

Do you ever have those days where you feel you have a million thoughts swirling through your head? Yeah, me too. Most days if I’m honest.

There’s one simple trick that really helps me get on top of that overwhelm.

It’s called a Brain Dump.

Of course, this isn’t a new idea, and it may even be something you regularly do, or have tried before. Perhaps today I’m just here to REMIND you to how easy it is to find calm by simply taking what’s in your brain and transferring it to another place. By another place, I mean writing it out on paper, or your computer or an app on your phone.

Personally, I prefer pen and paper because just the act of writing things down can be therapeutic, and is known to help you retain information. However, digital is great if you prefer to keep records that way. What’s important is that you’re freeing up valuable space by moving the excess thoughts into a different storage medium. Ahh, now you’re on your way to CLARITY.

The brain dump process is very simple:

Set aside some quiet time.
Write down everything that’s in your head.
Keep going until you can’t think of anything else.
Write (or type) out all the random thoughts in no particular order or format.
Pause every once in awhile and take a few deep breaths…more thoughts will surface.
Don’t worry if you feel there’s more but you can’t grasp it, you can always come back later and add to it any trailing thoughts.
Now you can SEE all those thoughts and can organize them in a way that makes sense.
I like to get a new paper and categorize all my thoughts into these columns:
Do Soon / Can Wait / Delegate / Let This Go (you’ll come up with your own categories that work best for you).

You’ll find you feel more refreshed and can think more clearly after your brain dump session. Woo-hoo!

Here’s how a Brain Dump can help:

  • It clears your head, kind of like a computer cache.
  • It gives you a sense of control by seeing the info in front of your eyes.
  • It allows you to sort through the information far easier when you can see it written out.
  • It makes it possible to organize the brain chaos into a format that makes sense.
  • It opens up space so your brain can function better.
  • It creates more options and ideas.
  • It helps you to process things and to make plans.
  • It makes those thoughts more readily managed.
  • It makes it easier to gain focus and to be more productive in your work flow.
  • Your thoughts and ideas are now organized…not swirling.

How Often?

Some people do this on a weekly basis, but you may find you need it more or less often. For more peaceful sleep, I actually keep a notebook on my bedside table and write down any “need to do” thoughts before going to bed each night. Knowing those nagging thoughts have been dumped, and that I’ll see them on my list the morning gives me permission to relax and go to bed with a calm mind.

What’s in your head right now?
Maybe it’s time to take a little break for a Brain Dump!